Fall Colors of the Alleghany Mountains of Virginia

As the Fall begins to sink its fingers into the Northeast with cooler weather, shorter days, and some crazy wind we’re moving into more complicated material and through an intense midterm period. I managed to get out the city a couple of weekends ago, which was incredibly important for my health (though by now some of the therapeutic effects unfortunately seem to be waning). My girlfriend and I drove down to the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia. We were lucky to have perfect timing and were there for peak colors (the trees turn earlier in the mountains, despite the latitude) and even saw a Bald Eagle!

Now, I find myself working harder than I’ve had to in a while, as my two part-time jobs are demanding much more from me. I have two part-time jobs because I want to make it through school with minimal debt and because I want to continue to cultivate myself beyond the boundaries of Chinese Medicine. I’m working as an environmental educator for an organization called The Wild Lab. It’s an awesome organization and our program is super-cool. Essentially, we’re using an iPhone application to teach students about birds and about citizen science. My other part-time job, which is currently only a couple of weekends a month, involves care for adults with mental disabilities. I’m currently skipping my daytime classes to attend a course that will certify me to administer medications (I’ve still managed to make it to my evening classes, both of which involved quizes this week), the course is a New York State specific thing.

All that said, I did want to hop online, write a little update, remind myself and the world about the realities of being a student, and share briefly an experience that has me thinking more about health and what it does and/or doesn’t mean, and how we regulate our health.

Last night, I was feeling very stressed out, a bit overwhelmed by the number of things on my plate (tasty as those things may be). I was tired, and having trouble finding the energy,desire, or focus, to do anything, but zone out (something I clearly needed to do). To create more context I had gotten very little sleep the previous night, and eaten crappy food that day. Today, I’ve been feeling much better, and in fact came home excited to work on flashcards and memorizing all of these medications and what they’re prescribed for, because learning is awesome (of course I had to write first). Last night I got to bed at a decent time, and today, I think I ate stuff that my system was more happy with.

Nothing external really changed all that much. I still have 3 midterms on Monday, and my first day teaching in the classroom on Tuesday, and I’m still working part of this weekend. But I’m feeling better, and therefore more able to cope with the challenges I face. Now, we all have ups and downs, that’s natural. We have to balance the energized Yang periods of our days and weeks with restorative restful Yin periods of time. But I’m wondering about how we feel within those moments, and who or what’s in control of when and where they occur. I don’t have answers, and I think the answers are different for everyone, but the only way to find the answers is to be aware and observe ourselves and pay attention to what’s affecting us and how.

For the record, personally, I’m examining specifically which foods do what to my body and state of mind, and have been learning a lot about nutrition from a Chinese medical point of view, and hope, at some point, to have a series of food and nutrition related posts (hehe, though I’m sure we’re all sick of different people telling us what and how to eat – which is a whole other topic I plan on exploring).

So, let’s all try to pay attention to what makes us feel good, and what makes us feel not so good… and let’s try to do more things that make us feel Good 🙂

And now… off to the books.

Questions? Comments? Thoughts?